OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES® t Morane-Saulnier MS.406 Aces Kari Stenman and Christian-Jacques© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com Ehrengardt SERIES EDITOR: TONY HOLMES OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES 121 Morane-Saulnier MS.406 Aces Christian-Jacques Ehrengardt and Kari Stenman © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 CHAPTER ONE ‘THE BEST FIGHTER IN THE WORLD’ 7 CHAPTER TWO THE PHONEY WAR 10 CHAPTER THREE THE BATTLE OF FRANCE 18 CHAPTER FOUR UNDER VICHY AND THE RAF 53 CHAPTER FIVE THE WINTER WAR 60 CHAPTER SIX STALEMATE WAR 74 APPENDICES 89 COLOUR PLATES COMMENTARY 92 INDEX 96 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com INTRODUCTION he Morane-Saulnier MS.406 was an important aircraft not only because of the sheer number produced (more than 1000 had been T built when France went out of the war in June 1940), but also because it was the first really modern fighter in the Armée de l’Air (French Air Force) inventory. Although it was comparable with the British Hawker Hurricane and early models of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109, it could not hold its own against the more powerful Bf 109E and Bf 110C. The MS.406 was the mainstay of the Armée de l’Air during the ‘Phoney War’, but it had begun to be phased out in favour of the more potent Dewoitine D.520 at the turn of 1940. However, owing to the limited capacities of the French aircraft industry, five of the twelve units that started the war with Moranes had to carry on until the bitter end with the same type. With no protection, the MS.406 sustained heavy losses during the Battle of France. It was slow and too lightly armed with unreliable weapons, so bringing down the fast German bombers was no easy task, let alone engaging in dogfights with the Bf 109, which outperformed it in all respects except for manoeuvrability. But, as one pilot put it, ‘Turning does not win a dogfight’. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that only 12 French pilots became fully fledged aces at the controls of the MS.406 during this period, although many kills were shared. However, a score of others, who notched their very first kills at the controls of the Morane, fought the rest of World War 2 flying D.520s, Supermarine Spitfires and even Soviet Yakovlevs to attain ‘acedom’ against opponents whose aircraft bore black crosses, white stars or red-white-and- blue roundels. It is a little-known fact that, although the MS.406 was phased out in non-occupied France and northern Africa after the armistice was signed with Germany in June 1940, it soldiered on to protect French colonies that remained under the control of the Vichy government. The Morane was briefly pitted against the Japanese and the Thais in French Indochina in late 1940, against the Commonwealth air forces in Syria during May-June 1941 and over Madagascar in 1942. It was also used by the Croatian Air Force and on a larger scale by the Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), whose operations are dealt with in the second part of this book. 6 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com ‘THE BEST FIGHTER ‘THE BEST FIGHTER IN THE WORLD’ IN THE WORLD’ he Morane-Saulnier MS.405 was designed to a specification issued in 1934, calling for a fighter able to achieve 400 km/h T(250 mph) in level flight. Departing from their typical braced parasol monoplanes, the design team led by Paul-René Gauthier came up with a cantilevered low-wing monoplane. However, it retained the fabric-covered steel framework of the classic biplanes of the 1930s (except for the metal-covered forward fuselage), but incorporated ‘novel’ features such as a retractable undercarriage, an enclosed cockpit, landing flaps and a variable-pitch propeller – equipment usually regarded by ‘old-time’ pilots as ‘gadgets’. Considered an interim fighter until more advanced types came off the drawing boards, the MS.405 was built around the Hispano-Suiza 12Ygrs 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, which produced 860 hp at an altitude of 4000 m (13,000 ft). It was to be armed with one 20 mm Hispano S7 cannon mounted between the cylinder banks and firing through the propeller hub, and two drum-fed 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine guns in the wings. The prototype, MS.405-01, made its maiden flight on 8 August When it was displayed at the international meeting at Bruxelles- 1935, and after official trials a pre-production batch of 15 machines Evère in July 1937, the MS.405 was was ordered, the first one being delivered in August 1936. The basic hailed as the ‘best fighter in the design was sound, with no vices, the aircraft being easy to fly and word’ – a superlative that could highly manoeuvrable. never have been applied to its successor, the MS.406. Like all French However, it was not devoid of defects, none of which would be fighters of this era, the latter eradicated. In particular, the semi-retractable ventral radiator was the machine lacked a truly powerful source of many problems. When lowered it caused pronounced drag engine such as the German Daimler- that dramatically reduced the top speed, and when it was raised the Benz DB 601 or the British Rolls- Royce Merlin, both of which engine overheated so much that it could not be pushed to its full power. developed around 20 per cent more The undercarriage, having no locking device, was prone to lower in horsepower than the French hard turns or dive recoveries – no small handicap in a dogfight. As the Hispano-Suiza (via Author) 7 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com official technical services did not consider it essential to provide heating for the wing machine guns, they froze above 4000 m (13,000 ft), which was the usual combat altitude in 1940. Like all combat aircraft of its era, the MS.405-01 had no armour (not even an armoured windshield) and no self-sealing tanks, and its complex and vulnerable electrical and CHAPTER ONE hydraulic systems would prove to be another Achilles’ heel. In June 1937 the MS.405-01 was displayed by the famous aerobatic pilot Michel Détroyat at the international meeting at Bruxelles-Evère, where it was optimistically presented as ‘the best fighter in the world’. It might not have been the best, but it was surely one of the fastest, as Détroyat returned to the Morane plant at Puteaux, near Paris, at an average speed of 430 km/h (270 mph) – quite an achievement at that time. Alas, the reputation was short-lived. The proposed version to be mass-built was the MS.406, powered by a Hispano-Suiza 12Y31, its variable-pitch Chauvière 351 propeller soon being replaced by a constant-speed Ratier 1607. MS.406 No 1 first flew on 20 May 1938. The Armée de l’Air was lagging so far behind in re-equipping its fighter units with modern types that no fewer than 1082 MS.406s were ordered within a few weeks. Production had to be split between several recently nationalised companies, and 11 factories were to manufacture parts to be assembled by the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques de l’Ouest (SNCAO) at Nantes-Bouguenais. A grand total of 1077 (this Fresh from the factory, two MS.406s number is still an issue for debate) MS.406s were taken on charge by the rev up on the SNCASO tarmac before their maiden flights in May 1939. Armée de l’Air before the armistice of June 1940. Closest to the camera is No244, However, despite its simple structure the MS.406 required twice as many which was allocated to GC II/2 and man-hours as the Bf 109 to be assembled (the Bf 109 took 1600 hours) – as lost to flak on 8 June 1940 (its pilot, many as the Spitfire I, which was reputed to be an industrial nightmare to Adj Jacques Marconnet, was killed). The aviator seen here securing his build. This further delayed French fighter units’ conversion to the type. helmet is Michel Détroyat, Morane- Moreover, companies manufacturing essential parts such as propellers and Saulnier’s chief test pilot and a gunsights created bottlenecks because of their low output. renowned aerobatic pilot (via Author) 8 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com ‘THE BEST FIGHTER IN THE WORLD’ Some early pre-series machines were allocated to the 4th Escadrille of Groupe de Chasse (GC) II/7 (the basic organisation of French units is given in Appendix 1) at Dijon for operational evaluation in late 1938. The first production MS.406 was delivered in September 1938, and in early 1939 the 6th and 7th Escadres de Chasse began their conversions. When France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, 347 of the 573 machines taken on charge by the Armée de l’Air equipped ten fiontline Groupes de Chasse based on French metropolitan soil as follows; GC I/2 Beauvais-Tillé GC II/2 Clermont-les-Fermes GC III/2 Cambrai-Niergnies GC I/3 Velaine-en-Haye GC II/3 Fayence GC III/3 Salon-de-Provence GC II/6 Anglure-Vouarces GC III/6 Villacoublay GC II/7 Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur GC III/7 Ambérieu D ERIVATIVES The basic MS.406 gave birth to many different versions, but none of them reached operational status, at least in France, and they will not be dealt with in detail in this volume. The most promising was probably the MS.410, equipped with a fixed radiator, four belt-fed wing guns, jet exhaust pipes and the provision for two underwing 140-litre (30.8 gallon) ferrying tanks.